A Way of Life and Freedom
by Lady Ashley
Summary: One fought for their way of living, the other fought for freedom. The Civil War was more than an argument, it was the differences in beliefs. Some forget about how sacred and bloody that war was. /Civil War Drabbles\\
Way of Life and Freedom

" _ **The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on."**_

 _ **-Ulysses S. Grant**_

 _Alfred, much like everyone else, he knew war was never pretty. War has never been fun or very nice. Everyone knew that. It was that simple._

 _Alfred had to say one of his worst was his Civil War. He knew that Civil Wars were no fun. He knew it from talks with England, and a few other nations. Alfred saw the French Revolution as a Civil War, he knew that it was very long a very bloody. He hated the thought of his own people fighting each other, and possibly killing each other._

 _People couldn't understand what it was like being a nation. Alfred hated the part that everyone had different ideas, and he had to deal with them all._

 _This, that, god, he couldn't love anything without hating it. He could never side with one and only one opinion. No one knew how much willpower it took to even support the patriots and join their armies. He constantly had to deal with hating England and having undying Loyalty to England. No one knew how frustrating that was._

 _He didn't even want to get started with the political parties. Political elections were even more frustrating._

 _Alfred Foster Jones had to say that the Civil War was one of the worst experiences of being a country._

 _He had to deal with two completely different opinions, ideas, and political differences. He had to feel his people killing each other by the thousands. It was mind numbing and pain that could only be explained as agony._

 _Alfred had been asked after the war if he had to kill the Confederate States of America. He was them both. He was not just America. He was the United States of America and Confederate States of America. To exist, you often have to be recognized by someone. The Confederate States of America wasn't seen as a country, you need to be independent. The South wasn't seen as a separate thing from the North, no, they were seen as one thing. It wasn't like England and his colonies. His Colonies were a part of him, but they were separate. They were on the other side of the world. Hence why colonies have representatives._

 _The South and North were connected, therefore he was the one and sole personification of the North and South. That is why he did not split into two when the South claimed independence. He was the South, North, and West._

 _He never had to kill this Confederate States of America because he was the Confederate States of America and the United States of America._

 _Alfred hated every moment of it, even after the war, it was obvious there was a huge divide between the North and South._

 _He hated to remember back. He hated to have to look back and feel the pain and all of the confusion._

 _He remembered sitting in his small home, a cup of something in his hands._

 _Yet there are times in which he looked back, he never would forget what made him into what he is. He's done things he regrets, but that does not mean he will act as if he never did any wrong._

" _ **I hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country."**_

 _ **-E. M. Forster**_

End of 1861

The smell of coffee did little to calm his nerves. His shaking hand threatened to drop his cup. He was forced to put the cup on his bedside table. His body screamed for different actions, but he himself just wanted to lay down and give up. He knew he couldn't do that, he couldn't give up. Who has heard of a nation giving up? Who has heard of a nation actually giving up being a nation? If he knew of anyone, he would've asked them.

He felt the burning anger, the undying loyalty his people had. It was part way through the war, the Confederates were doing surprisingly well at the time. He felt a small sense of pride, pride that he was beating the much larger armies of the Yanks-. Then there was anger about how this army was losing to those damn rebels-.

A long and drawn out sigh had left his lips. He was kicked out of the White House do to his recent behaviors. He had attacked Abraham Lincoln. He did not seriously hurt him due to be stopped by the bodyguards. He still attacked him all the same. It was recommended that he stay in his own home, his old Virginia home.

Alfred felt that the choice wasn't the best one. Now he wasn't in any of his hearts. He wasn't in Richmond or Washington D.C.

He was in a city called Appomattox. He wasn't sure why he had a home here, maybe he forgot with all the recent happenings.

He was rather tempted to go to Richmond, now that he was not allowed in his other heart. He wanted to see Jefferson Davis. He had met him several times before, he was once the Secretary of War. Though he mostly tried to stick to speaking with his president, he didn't want too many people know his secret. Heaven forbid word got out about nations.

Alfred would probably go if he felt like getting a horse ready for himself. Otherwise, he'll probably take a short walk around. The worst part about going out was his constant shaking. He was not scared, no, it was his body trying to figure out which country it belonged to.

He just hoped if the Confederacy of America were to be independent, he wasn't split between the Union and the Confederates.

The split nation finally picked up his coffee again, bring it to his lips. He took a long and very drawn out drink.

He was not one to back down or to give up, even in his current state. Alfred stood up as he grabbed the cane that sat next to his bed. It wasn't anything overly fancy, it was just meant to keep him from falling on his face. He did not want to break his beloved glasses again.

When he finally grabbed his glasses from his bedside table, he placed them on his face. He was glad he got to keep his glasses, without them he felt like he was missing a huge part of him.

Alfred had picked a small home for himself, he had small homes everywhere. He couldn't afford a bunch of large homes in every region. He always got a small home that would meet his needs. He didn't need a huge kitchen, nor a huge bedroom, nor a huge parlor. He just needed enough space, and that it would be comfortable to live in for a set amount of time. He usually lived in the White House, he was the nation, where else would he live?

The nation, or maybe nations, got up and got ready for his long and not very enjoyable day.

" _ **It is well that war is so terrible – otherwise we would grow too fond of it."**_

 _ **-Robert E. Lee**_

1861

Alfred remembered that someone had said they would be able to wipe all of the blood that would spill by a handkerchief.

Everyone thought this would be some 90 day war.

Everyone felt there wasn't going to be much blood spilt.

Anyone who claimed this would take heavy casualties, were considered insane.

Alfred wondered why this hurts so much.

Why it felt like he was being torn into a million pieces.

He could not understand why.

This wasn't supposed to hurt this much! This much blood shouldn't have seeped into the soil!

Yet, it did.

It felt horrible.

He could feel how people felt before the battle near Manassas.

The North was so _cocky._

They may have a bigger army, bigger population, they had more of just about everything.

Yet, being cocky made them lose that battle. The South fought with a certain fury that had rattled the northern soldiers.

That led to the Southern Victory.

It led to the troops hurrying back to Washington D.C.

That battled proved to everyone. It proved that this was no easy and quickly over war.

The Confederates made the first move.

The first move started on Fort Sumter. They were given a choice. They attacked the Union Fort, luckily no one died.

Yet that started the war itself, but there was more to the beginning of this war.

This all started with disagreements with the government.

Disagreements.

Disagreements started this all.

Who'd say he was wrong?

There was disagreements since the beginning of his country.

There were disagreement as the Constitution was being written.

There were disagreements from the very beginning.

Disagreements had taken root. Then they had bloomed between the North and South.

They both were so different.

Fast moving rivers to keep factories running. Slow rivers to transport goods. Railroads galore. Few Railroads.

One had extremely fertile land while the other did not.

Their extreme differences led to this.

Alfred couldn't possibly figure out why he had to deal with both of these extremes at once rather than there being another personification.

Yet, they were one nation beforehand and Alfred wasn't sure of what he even wanted.

He honestly just wanted this to be over. He did not want to play this twisted game anymore.

It was only the first year of the war, and he was sick of it.

One battle showed everything. One battled showed, it made a prediction, a prediction in that this would be a very bloody war.

So many people were willing to die for the sake of their beliefs.

The North had more people, and the South did not.

The South had planned to fight until the North had nothing else left. They tried to compare this to the 13 colonies and Britain.

The North planned to deprive the South of money and resources from making a blockade. Their plan was to slow defeat armies, take out ports, slowly, very slowly deprive the South of the their resources and will to fight.

Yet, the South did have a very good advantage, the Generals of the North were not very effective. While the Southern have very good generals.

Sometimes it was quality over quantity.

Yet, when quantity and quality joined up against just quality, there is only so much you can do before defeat.

Alfred knew that, and he felt it was only a matter of time before they would come back into the Union.

He wanted but he also did not want the Union to win. Yet, he always had that feeling the Union was going to bring back the 11 revolting states no matter what.

" _ **War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."**_

 _ **-William Tecumseh Sherman**_

 **This is simply the start of a bunch of Civil War Drabbles. This is merely the beginning, and any requests for battles and/or big events during the Civil War are welcomed.**

 **My line breaks will be represented by quotes from the generals, presidents, and any quote that I feel that fits.**

 **This one did not need much information to be looked up, but for certain events I will research so I can get a better idea of it.**

 **Do you know how confused I was when there were three freaking locations for the capital of CSA?**

 **First it was Montgomery till it was moved to Richmond, and when they got word the Union was coming they fled to Danville. Though Richmond played capital the longest do I went with that being the capital.**

 **I am planning to do the Gettysburg Address, and as a reminder, this is a warm up for me.**

 **The future may hold the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and maybe the Mexican-American War. Though, I am a lazy ass that procrastinates a little too much.**

 **Till next time my readers!**

 _ **Lady Ashley**_


End file.
